According to The Bookseller, more than 400 French independent booksellers have signed a petition opposing Hachette Livre’s agreement to sell its books on the iBookstore.
The petition, entitled ‘Does Hachette Livre want to do Without Booksellers?’ and reported by the French trade weekly Livres Hebdo, says the joint advertising campaign by Apple and France’s largest publisher to promote the launch of the iPad in France on 28th May was considered by booksellers “as a sign of great disdain”.
The agreement between the two undermined “the need for publishers to fix retail book prices and resistance to the risk of domination or a quasi-monopoly by one or two large American distributors that impose their terms”. … The petition also says that Hachette Livre is trying “to marginalise French booksellers [for e-books, bowing to] the demands of the American market”
More information in the article.
Typical French bunker and anti-consumer mentality. A deep fear of the spread of western anglophile culture and language and a disdain for the consumer. They are long accustomed to fixing inflated prices in many industries so that consumers pay for their comfortable lifestyles – all in the name of France. I expect they will battle eBooks all the way and do their best to keep the prices as high as they possibly can for as long as they possibly can. Let’s see what the French reader thinks.